Iranian Oil Workers Strike After Arrests?

In ICEM Update, No. 9/1997. 17 February, 1997

Workers launched strikes yesterday in Iran's four oil refining centres,
according to Iranian emigre organisations. The groups said the strikes
in Shiraz, Isfahan, Tabriz and Tehran are in protest at the arrest of
hundreds of oil workers and their elected representatives in Tehran
yesterday, during a picket of the oil ministry. Workers in the Tehran
oil distribution department, on the oil pipelines and in the national
gas company have also joined the strike, the groups claim.

Iran has now outlawed all oil workers' organisations and refused the
workers' demand for collective bargaining, the exile groups report.

This directly contradicts a statement by the oil minister on Iranian
radio yesterday that a negotiated agreement had been reached with the
oil workers. Claiming "100% reliable" sources within the country, the
emigre groups describe the minister's statemen t as a "complete
fabrication."

According to the groups, most of the arrests took place when
Revolutionary Guards were called in to disperse a picket of "around
2,000 oil workers and their representatives, accompanied by many other
workers of associated industries." More arrests were ma de during raids
on workers' homes last night.

The emigre groups have urged "all trade unions, political parties and
the media to publicise this news and to put pressure on the Iranian
government to free, immediately and unconditionally, all oil workers
and their supporters who have been arrested."

Iranian oil workers have been campaigning for better pay and
conditions, but also for the right to form their own union and to
bargain collectively. In the absence of any clear response from the
authorities, some work stoppages reportedly took place last year.
Workers threatened a further, unlimited strike if their demands were
not met. Oil is Iran's main export.

On 5-6 February this year, according to the emigre groups, oil workers
in each city elected representatives, who met in Tehran on 7 February
to form a national oil workers' organisation. However, the government
intervened, dissolved the meeting and sent t he representatives back to
their respective cities, which it forbade them to leave. A week later,
the government demanded that each oil city send representatives to
Tehran for negotiations. Those negotiations were "fruitless," the
emigre groups say. Hence yesterday's mass picket of the oil ministry.

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